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The Oxus Civilization La Civilización Del Oxus

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The Oxus Civilization La Civilización Del Oxus CuPAUAM 39, 2013, pp. 21-63 The Oxus Civilization La Civilización del Oxus 1 C.C. Lamberg-Karlovsky Recibido: 01-07-2013 Aceptado: 20-10-2013 Resumen La Civilización del Oxus, también conocida como la Civilización de Bactria-Margiana, está centrada en el oasis de Murghab, Turkmenistán, y datada entre el 2200-1700 AC. Descubierta por Victor Sarianidi en la década de 1970, continua sus excavaciones en el poblado de +20 hectáreas de Gonur depe. La Civilización del Oxus tiene una arquitectura única, una cultura material excepcionalmente rica, y contactos con Mesopotamia, el Valle del Indo y la llanura iraní. Palabras clave: Civilización del Oxus, Bronce Inicial, Turkmenistán, Gonur depe. Abstract The Oxus Civilization, also known as the Bactrian-Margina Civilization, is centere in the Murghab Oasis, Turkmenistan, and dated to 2200-1700 BC. Discovered by Victor Sarianidi in the 1970s, he continues his excavations on the +20 hectare site of Gonur depe. The Oxus Civilization has unique architecture, an exceptionally rich material culture, and contacts with Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley and the Iranian Plateau. Key words: Oxus Civilization, Early Bronze Age, Turkmenistan, Gonur depe. The discovery of a spectacular artifact, a rich lizational status, was uncovered in Central Asia tomb, a treasured hoard, or an ancient city (Sarianidi, 1976). Its principal discoverer was belonging to the earliest civilizations attracts a Victor Sarianidi, then of Moscow’s Institute of very considerable attention. Thus, one might Archaeology, Soviet Academy of Sciences (Fig. 1). imagine that the discovery of a completely He has spent the past 40 years excavating the 40+ unknown civilization would create a flurry of hectare site of Gonur depe in Turkmenistan. For interest. At the very least, one might expect this archaeological discovery he coined the cum- such a discovery to attend the interest of the bersome term the ‘Bactrian Margiana professional archaeologist. Not entirely so. In Archaeological Complex’, hereafter the BMAC. notable introductory texts on archaeology there Bactria and Margiana were the geographical is hardly mention of its existence (Fagan, 2009; terms by which the Greeks, following Renfrew and Bahn, 2008; Scarre, 2009; Alexander’s conquests referred to this region, of Chazan 2010). In the late 1970s a remarkable Central Asia. Margiana (Margush), in turn was a archaeological complex, fully worthy of civi- Persian satrapy compromising both regions. 1 Stephen Phillips Professor of Archaeology and Ethnology, University, 11 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138- Department of Anthropology, Peabody Museum, Harvard 2019, USA. [email protected] ISSN 0211-1608 22 C.C. Lamberg-Karlovsky CuPAUAM 39, 2013: 21-63 Figure 1. Victor Sarianidi in the laboratory at Gonur depe (Sarianidi, 2007: 11). Alternatively, and with increasing frequency, English. All are splendidly illustrated with pho- the ‘Oxus Civilization’, is used to denote the tos, plans, and drawings of the architecture and BMAC. The Oxus being the name the Greeks artifacts recovered. All are dominated by used in denoting the great Amu Darya River, the Sarianidi’s expansive interpretations regarding greatest of Central Asian rivers. The settlement the religious beliefs, ethnicity, and language of density of the BMAC is distributed along the the residents of the BMAC (more on this below). smaller Murghab River which originates in the A series of radiocarbon dates from a number of Paropamisus Mountains of Afghanistan and BMAC settlements place the civilization between debauches into the Karakorum desert (Masimov, 2200-1700 B.C. (but see H. Junger’s article for 1975; Salvatori, 2008). Over the past two decades radiocarbon dates of 2500-1700 B.C. in Kozhin et this region has been subject to intensive settle- alii, 2010) (Fig. 2). ment survey (Salvatori and Tosi, eds., 2008; The quest for origins, though often said to be Gubaev et alii, 1998) and the excavation of at least a half dozen sites. To date several books have a secondary consideration, remains a primary been written by Victor Sarianidi (see bibliography focus of archaeological concern. The conceit of and Lamberg-Karlovsky, 2003 for review), largely the archaeologist is to focus upon an ethno- based on his own excavations at the site of Gonur graphic reconstruction of the past, a concern that depe. His books are published in Turkmenistan transcends the ephemera of ‘origins’. The ques- and Russia, thus very difficult of access and are tion remains: When, Where and How did this laudably tri-lingual: Turkman, Russian and archaeological entity originate? Within the con- ISSN 0211-1608 CuPAUAM 39, 2013: 21-63 The Oxus Civilization 23 Figure 2. The riverine oases and major settlements of the Oxus Civilization (Sarianidi, 1998: 34 fig. 9). text of the BMAC this is a vexing and much due to the lack of excavation but to the research debated topic. Two hypotheses, their foreign vs. strategy pursued. local origin, contend for attention – given present As to the origin of the Oxus Civilization the evidence neither can be conclusively affirmed or first hypothesis argues for a distant and foreign negated. Chronological distinctions, settlement source. This view is championed by Sarianidi size and pattern, relationship to irrigation, subsis- who believes their origin is to be sought in tence economy, and socio-political structure Anatolia. In his view a great migration of the remain almost entirely unexamined. This is not future residents of the BMAC traversed ISSN 0211-1608 24 C.C. Lamberg-Karlovsky CuPAUAM 39, 2013: 21-63 Figure 3. Sarianidi’s hypothesis concerning the eastward migrations of the Oxus Civilization from Anatolia (Sarianidi, 1998: 163 fig. 75). Mesopotamia where they “could not find free In the last half of the third millennium, and for land”, crossed the Iranian Plateau, and finally millennia before that, the Iranian Plateau was found their “free land” in the deltaic fan of the inhabited by a mosaic of distinctive cultures – all Murghab River (Fig. 3). Other tribes are alleged reasonably defined by the archaeological record to have continued their migration to (Petrie, 2013). Toward the last centuries of the Northwestern China (Sarianidi, 2009: 42-43). third millennium a restricted inventory of BMAC Central to Sarianidi’s imagination is his belief artifacts appear on a number of sites on the that the migrants were Aryans, specifically Indo- Iranian Plateau and in the Indus Valley and the Iranians, who followed proto-Zoroastrian beliefs Persian Gulf: i.e.: Susa, Tepe Yahya, Shahdad, and rituals. Tentative support for the foreign Khinaman, Hissar, Jiroft, Harappa, Mohenjodaro, emergence comes from Pierre Amiet (2004). and Tell Abraq. The archaeologist refers to the Both entertain notions of BMAC affiliations finds of BMAC materials on sites of an indigenous (origins) with an Elamite world pointing to a culture as “site intrusion”, that is, artifacts number of archaeological sites on the Iranian restricted in number and type recovered from an Plateau that contain BMAC materials. Amiet indigenous culture. There can be little doubt identifies the BMAC as having a “Trans- that the BMAC influenced the indigenous cul- Elamite” identity, a culture of artisan nomads tures of the Iranian Plateau and the Indus distributed across the Iranian Plateau to Central Civilization, while in complimentary fashion Asia. Steinkeller (see n.d. in bibliography) simi- numerous artifacts of the Indus and Iranian larly entertains a diffuse origin from the Iranian Plateau are known from Gonur depe (Sarianidi, Plateau. 2009) (Fig. 4a, 4d, 4e). Note, however, that not ISSN 0211-1608 CuPAUAM 39, 2013: 21-63 The Oxus Civilization 25 Figures 4a. Ceramic parallels between the Oxus and Shahdad, Iran (Sarianidi, 1998: 139 fig. 71). a single BMAC artifact has been recovered from Iranian Plateau: Malyan (ancient Anshan), Godin Mesopotamia while an inscribed Akkadian seal Tepe and on all sites of NW Iran (on the Khorasan was recovered from Gonur depe (Sarianidi, 2002; Road), while present at Susa they are absent on 2005) (Fig. 4b). The view for a foreign, migrato- neighboring Choga Mish in Khorasan, and absent ry origin of the BMAC simply lacks sufficient at Shahr-i Sokhta; while present at Shahdad they credible evidence. The distribution of a diffuse are absent at Yahya, Konar Sandal, and Bampur. inventory of BMAC artifacts over a vast landscape On the Iranian Plateau where BMAC artifacts are offers little geographical focus for a point of origin. recovered they are intrusive, a limited number of Amiet (1986) and to a certain extent Steinkeller’s artifacts, found in the context of an indigenous (n.d.) promotion of a trans-Elamite Culture (con- local culture. One cannot demonstrate the exis- sisting according to Amiet of pastoral nomads) tence of a shared trans-Elamite Culture on the that identifies BMAC origins within the context Iranian Plateau only a limited inventory of intru- of indigenous cultures of the Iranian Plateau sim- sive BMAC artifacts recovered from distinctive ply does not stand up to the archaeological evi- cultures on the Iranian Plateau! dence. The BMAC is a wholly distinctive culture Hypothesis two argues for a local oases/pied- whose origins are to be sought in Central Asia not mont origin. A rich post Paleolithic settlement of within the context of the cultures of the Iranian Central Asia begins with a mid-seventh millenni- Plateau! um Neolithic (Dani and Masson, 1992). In the So we turn to hypothesis two; an indigenous piedmont zone of the Kopet Dagh Mountains sites origin. BMAC artifacts are, in fact wholly absent as Ilgynly tepe, dated to the fifth millennium, on important and contemporary sites of the illustrate an elaborate metallurgy, an exceptional Figures 4b. Akkadian cylinder seal with inscription from Gonur (Sarianidi, 2005: 258, fig. 115). ISSN 0211-1608 26 C.C. Lamberg-Karlovsky CuPAUAM 39, 2013: 21-63 Figures 4c. Seal of the Indus Civilization from Gonur depe (Sarianidi, 2005: 258 fig. 114). repertoire of figurines, complex mosaics within 3rd millennium.
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